POLSON - Buckle up and get ready to race, because the video game

scene in Polson just got a boost of NOS. Recently, a full-fledged

shrine room to gaming has been constructed in the Kustom Gaming

Garage on Main Street, complete with eight racing chairs and

wheels, hooked up to PS3s. The place is unique for Lake County and

for a small nominal fee, gamers can race one another or try their

luck online. Racing games aren't the only choices though, gamers

can play several different games on both the PS3 and Xbox 360

systems.

POLSON - Buckle up and get ready to race, because the video game scene in Polson just got a boost of NOS.

Recently, a full-fledged shrine room to gaming has been constructed in the Kustom Gaming Garage on Main Street, complete with eight racing chairs and wheels, hooked up to PS3s. The place is unique for Lake County and for a small nominal fee, gamers can race one another or try their luck online. Racing games aren't the only choices though, gamers can play several different games on both the PS3 and Xbox 360 systems.

"Grand Turismo 5 has been the most popular because it has the wheels," Gaming Garage owner Kyle Stinger said. "First person shooters are always popular too."

The idea for the set up at the Kustom Gaming Garage came from Stinger's own experience.

"I'd been sim-racing for about six years," he said. "I wanted to share it with other people."

Another inspiration for Stinger was giving kids in town some place to go for safe entertainment.

"It was a pretty big part of it," he said.

While the gaming room is open during business hours, Stinger wont allow kids to play during the school day.

"I'm not going to have any of it," Stinger said of the possible school-skipping. "I'm not letting them play, especially if they give me the excuse that they're sick. I don't want them boogering up the equipment in there."

Stinger also has a release form where the parents specify what type of games that the kids can play. This allows them to put a stop to content they don't want their child to see.

Hopefully in the future the new room can host tournaments and special events, he said.

"We're also looking at possibly expanding business hours at the end of the year," Stinger said.

The gaming room is a compilation of research by Stinger about what exactly to get and how viable business-wise it was. He had to look into getting the racing seats, the fittings for the screens, the PS3s and more. Wal-Mart helped Stinger get discounts on many of the items.

"Wal-Mart has been a huge help, they've been a great partner with me for the project," Stinger said.

While the Kustom Gaming Garage is still focused on repair and sales under the motto "Maintain Your Game" ^TM, Stinger said they'll accommodate the demand created by the gaming room.

"If the need arises, we could expand," Stinger said.

Along with the gaming room, Stinger also has quite the collection of classic arcade games. He's hosting a "Donkey Kong Challenge" too and the first player to reach 150,000 points on the Donkey Kong arcade machine will win a classic gaming console and games.

Stinger said it was a family effort with everything, praising his wife Kori and their two children, Bentley and Reegan.